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When you switch from one user to another, Apple's OS X 10.3 rotates the first user's desktop away while the other user's desktop swivels into view. This provides immediate assurance that the first user isn't being logged out.
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Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

T h e   R o a d   L e s s   T r a v e l e d
Mac OS X 10.3 Panther: Best operating system yet


Nov. 5, 2003


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, The Post-Standard

   Apple is selling a stunning new version of its OS X ("OS 10") operating system for Macintosh computers. The new version, code-named Panther, runs faster than the previous version and has dozens of new features and improvements.
   Panther, officially referred to as OS X 10.3, is not a free upgrade. It costs $129 for a single copy or $199 for a "family pack" that covers up to five computers at one location.
   OS X 10.3 is designed for most modern Macintosh models in the G3, G4 and G5 lines. Apple shows which Macs can handle OS X 1.3 on its site, at www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/requirements.html.
   Overall, Panther ranks at the top of modern personal-computer operating systems. It has built-in user features that Microsoft hasn't yet designed into Windows and is completely immune to the viruses and security failures that make Windows so troublesome for many users. I call it the best operating system yet developed for any computer.
   The new Mac operating system installed easily on my dual-processor Macintosh and picked up all my old settings. Although I had been using Entourage, Microsoft's heavy-duty e-mail software, on my Mac, I switched to Apple's revised Mail program after discovering that Mail had been dramatically improved.
   Mail is faster than before, blocks spam with greater accuracy and can track message threads — a huge benefit for anyone who does a lot of back-and-forth e-mail discussions. Clicking an upturned arrow at the left of message entries also shows any previous replies.
   Panther itself is spectacular. Apple leapfrogged Microsoft by adding a clear-the-decks function called Expose to Panther's desktop: Pressing a user-selectable key instantly moves all windows out of the way to uncover items on the desktop, and pressing another user-selectable key spreads on-screen windows apart (making them smaller if necessary) so that they are all visible.
   Apple also added another feature sure to impress your Windows-using friends. When you switch from one user to another, Apple's OS X 10.3 rotates the first user's desktop away while the other user's desktop swivels into view. This provides immediate assurance that the first user isn't being logged out.
   Everyone in the family can have individual accounts, or identities, on OS X; it's been part of OS X from the start. What the Panther version adds is Apple's "Fast User Switching." If mom is using the family Mac to order parts for the dishwasher but junior needs to check his homework assignments, mom can let junior log on right in the middle of her Web purchase. She won't lose anything and her entire user identity, desktop and all, will rotate back into place when junior is done.
   Apple improved its built-in e-mail software, too. For heavy e-mail users, these improvements might be the best part of Panther. Spam filtering, which was already excellent under the previous version, works even better, and I'm tempted to recommend a new OS X Macintosh to Windows users for the built-in spam blocking alone.
   Just as impressive is the way the Unix underpinnings of OS X 10.3 handle the intensive syntax checking required of the sophisticated spam filter in the mail program; at no time did I notice even the slightest slowdown or hesitation, even when I was recording DVDs while browsing the Web and retrieving the hundreds of messages I get in a typical evening. (Most of them, as I'm sure you can understand, are spam.)
   The mail software is faster at everything it does, and has an added feature that proved a delight when I needed to track down mail related to a current message. The new feature lets you organize Apple's Mail by message threads, an ideal way to keep track of an ongoing discussion, for example.
   Also new: Mail also shows a curly arrow at the left of messages you've replied to. Clicking on that arrow opens your reply.
   Panther's OS X Finder — the program that provides the desktop and all file and folder windows, among other things — is slicked up considerably, with a sidebar at the left and a toolbar on top, both of which can hold virtually any alias (or shortcut). Both can be turned on and off by clicking the top right gadget.
   Panther's networking is improved, too, and it should have no trouble joining a Windows network at home or at the office. I use DAVE, the standard-setting Mac-Windows networking program (go to www.thursby.com for more), so I didn't test Panther's native Windows networking.
   Panther has many more new and improved features. I'll share some of them with you next week.
 
 
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